Back when I was a young Buck Sergeant in the U.S. Army, I ran into trouble trying to re-enlist. It wasn’t because the Army didn’t want to keep me around, even under Clinton they were smart enough to try and keep an NCO who’d maxed his promotion board.

No, it was the Company Commander who was holding up my re-enlistment because he knew I was going to take the option to bail on his ate-up unit as a part of my package. My enlistment was up in 2 months, and he wanted me to somehow take care of it after I joined them on a 3 month excursion to the Middle East. Apparently other people had jumped ship and his ass was in a sling trying to find competent NCOs who’d prop up his house of cards on their backs.read more

I was born in KC and grew up in Texas. So while an appreciation for country music and mullets, or a predilection for window decals of Calvin pissing on random things never took hold (thank FSM), I did develop a taste for good barbecue.

Creative license and a desire for meaningful backstory might get me to suggest that a love for BBQ was one of the reasons I left California and moved back to KC. I’d be blowing smoke up your ass if I did though. Mundane crap such as the cost of living, traffic, taxes, and hippies, and the general douchebaggery of many Californians (particularly the Bay Area) were the real reasons. I wasn’t thinking so much about food as I was about paying 20% more for everything and the privilege of waiting in lines for an hour or more just to get it. The Bay Area would be a wonderful place if it had half the people and a quarter of the Nanny-State devotees. read more

For the record: I do not support violence against police officers, or robots. I did however, recently read (more like “listened to the audiobook while commuting”) “How to Survive a Robot Uprising“. But I’m pretty sure by the time the robots start coming for us, most of the information in there (such as using their limited sensory equipment against them to avoid getting robowned), won’t do much good. read more

A few weeks back I did a short interview with the guy from the BJJ blog “Punch Kick Choke”. Here’s the first question and you can follow the link at the end to read the rest of it.

So, Mr. Fletcher- your name strikes fear into the hearts of ninjas everywhere and makes grown LARPers cry in shame. Tell us a little about the man they call “Phrost.”

Well for starters “Phrost” just a username I’ve had for about 10+ years now and at this point I’m kind of stuck with it. I tried to change a while back but the people on Bullshido vetoed the idea.read more

Ever since W.J. McBride’s closed there hasn’t been a shepherd’s pie in this town worth a damn thing. I’ve been trying to find an “Irish pub” here that served a decent plate of it and as of last night I’m 0 for 2.

I’ve got things to do so I’m not going to elaborate very much, but what kind of freaking Irish place serves risotto?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great looking Irish pub, and the band was playing “Whiskey in the Jar” and such, and our bartender was cool. But my wife’s fish and chips came in a metal vase/basket, and the “pie” was basically a round “cake” of ground beef under a matching hockey-puck of what tasted like instant potatoes, all resting in a puddle of some kind of sauce.read more